Exotic locations luring couples for their wedding vows

Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007

Melissa RayworthThe Associated Press

Jennifer Schaedel grew up in the shadow of New York City, and she calls Manhattan home. But when she and her fiancDe began planning their wedding in 2004, her thoughts kept turning to memories of the tiny Caribbean island of St. John, where her family vacationed each year.

Her fiancDe had also grown up in New York's suburbs, however, so a Manhattan wedding was the logical choice.

"Then my father passed away a couple of months after I got engaged," says Schaedel, "St. John was his favorite place in the world, so having the wedding there felt like kind of a tribute to him."

That's when they began planning their "destination wedding," a phrase the wedding industry once used to describe couples eloping to a tropical beach, perhaps with a handful of friends and family members in tow. While that's still an option, today's destination weddings are often far more elaborate.

"Generally it's a three-day event, sometimes longer," says Lisa Light, a wedding planner and author of "Destination Bride: A Complete Guide To Planning Your Wedding Anywhere in the World." "For one in England, we had 150 people for five days of outings and events in London. Then, we packed them onto buses and drove to West Essex for this wonderful castle wedding."

For many people, like Schaedel, the decision is based on fond memories. Maybe a bride or groom spent a semester abroad in Paris, or loved visiting grandparents in Mexico.

For others, it begins with a dream. "A bride may have always had this fantasy of being married on a beach or in a castle," says Linda Kevich, editor of SuperWeddings.com. "Scotland is popular because of the wide assortment of castles."

The Internet has made it easy to plan a wedding from across the globe, and many resorts, such as the posh Grand Wailea on Maui, now offer pre-planned wedding packages that cover every detail. One click, and your planning is virtually done.

But some couples opt to use their wedding as a means of personal expression, planning a unique celebration in an exotic locale. Fabulous? Yes. But it can be costly - and complicated.

"There are a lot of moving parts to a destination wedding," says Karene Infranca, who lives in New Jersey but had a three-day wedding on the east end of Long Island in September, complete with a golf outing and pre-wedding clambake for 40 guests. "Remember, every fork has to be rented."

When the planning began taking too much time away from her advertising business, Infranca got online. She quickly found wedding coordinator Corinne Soikin Timor of HamptonWedding.com, who took care of the details.

Wedding planners do "take a lot of the guesswork out of it," says Antonia van der Meer, editor-in-chief of Modern Bride magazine.

"How are you going to choose an officiant if you've never been to Jamaica? You need either an event planner here who's very familiar with the location or an event planner on-site at the hotel."

Costs can range from reasonably affordable ($5,900 buys you a ceremony on the beach at Grand Wailea, with a floral bouquet, clergy and musicians, but no dinner reception) to phenomenally expensive (Schaedel's three-day celebration on St. John for 125 guests included a lavish reception, two catered cruises and a farewell beach barbecue, and ran about $90,000, not including the guests' transportation).

"But we did everything," she explains. "We shipped down coconut cups for people to drink out of and we had Japanese lanterns hanging from every tree."

They also set up a Web site to keep guests informed about plans and to share photos after their honeymoon.

Some couples see a destination wedding as a way to shrink their guest list. "It's so political in the real world," says Heather Anderson of BVIWeddings.com, which organizes weddings in the British Virgin Islands. "You're inviting people you don't really want to but you have to because your mother knows them from 30 years ago."

But the "wow factor" of many destination weddings can make guests surprisingly willing to attend.

"I tell brides, be careful who you invite because a lot of people come!" says Soikin Timor.

Guests often continue vacationing for several days after the wedding.

Las Vegas - once known for impulse weddings at drive-through Elvis-themed chapels - has become one of America's top spots for elaborate, catered ceremonies. Monica Bisek, wedding chapel manager at the Bellagio hotel in Vegas, plans hundreds of weddings each year, often for clients who've planned their nuptials to coincide with business trips.

"They may add their wedding when they're already coming for a convention or personal business, when their coworkers will already be in town."

Some even time their nuptials to sporting events. "When NASCAR is in town, you can see it: The type of wedding changes," Bisek says. "They know they can bring their friends and family. It doesn't take long for guests to say, 'I'm on board!'"

In Schaedel's case, her wedding became more than just a beach vacation for guests. It served as a reunion for old friends.

"A bunch of my friends got villas together on the island and stayed there together after the wedding was over," she says. "It was great. Everyone kept saying, what about your one-year anniversary? Where are we going next year?"